by R. G. Angel
“They sent—”
“The prince of the fae,” confirmed Aidan.
“Can’t you just intercept him?”
Tamlin sighed again. “We don’t know what he looks like. Myros did his best to hide his son after his wife died.”
I finally released my fisted hand, and as odd as it seems, I knew what I would find lying in my palm before seeing it.
“I know who the prince is,” I whispered, staring at the cufflink in my hand.
“Sor— what?” Tamlin asked, looking at my hand too.
“This cufflink, it’s Gareth’s and it’s unique.”
“Who’s Gareth? How do you know?” Aidan and Tamlin asked simultaneously.
I decided to ignore Aidan's question for the time being; it was too long to explain and not truly relevant.
“I bought those for him in an antique shop.” I gave the cufflink to Tamlin.
“You bought the fae prince a present?” Aidan asked, incredulous.
“He is… was my friend.”
Tamlin exhaled loudly, closing his eyes for a second. “I should have seen it coming.”
I was about to tell him not to blame himself, that it was my fault, no one else's, but I was just too slow.
Aidan took a step forward. “Yes, you should have. Now you see I’m right.”
I felt a wave of protectiveness toward Tamlin, such a huge wave that it stepped over my pain for a second. I was about to give him a piece of my mind, but a slight shake of Tamlin’s head stopped me.
As Tamlin stood up, he brought his hand behind my head and kissed my forehead. “I’ll make things alright,” he whispered against my skin.
How could he? Nothing would even be right again.
He turned toward Aidan. “We need to move the bod—Nick. Get Yannick.”
Aidan opened the door and let in the young man I’d seen standing in the clearing.
“You two go, cloak yourself and take him home. Take his money, and… anything of value; it needs to look like a mugging,” Tamlin ordered, sounding like the soldier he was.
I closed my eyes, trying to escape somewhere in my head, trying to forget they were trying to find a way to mask my brother's death.
“You should go; I’ll stay with the princess,” Aidan offered.
“I don’t think that’s wise,” Tamlin replied, clearly reluctant to leave me alone with him.
Knowing Tamlin didn’t want me with Aidan made me want to stay with him even more. Maybe he tried to protect me too much; maybe the situation was far worse than I thought it was. I needed a reality check, and I was sure that stern man was the key.
“You know what this Gareth looks like, but I don’t and who do you prefer to stay here with her, Yannick or me? No offense, kid.”
Yannick shook his head.
Tamlin sighed in exasperation before throwing me one last look, then looking back to Aidan. “Fine, stay with her. We’ll be back soon.”
I looked down to my hands as Tamlin and Yannick approached my brother. I didn’t want to see them take him away; I wanted to rewind time and save him.
When I finally heard the doors close quietly, I looked up to find my bed empty, and Aidan sitting on my desk chair.
He was silently observing me as if I were an experiment.
“It will get better with time; it will get better.”
“Time heals all wounds, doesn’t it?” I asked sarcastically. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.”
He shrugged slightly. “It might sound generic, but it’s true.”
“What did you tell Tamlin?”
“What do you mean?”
“In Gaelic you told him something… What was it?”
He looked at me as he was pondering it. “I told him it was obvious what you two were doing and that it was wrong.”
“What we are… doing?”
He raised an eyebrow in a ‘don’t insult me’ way. “You are not supposed to be together. It’s just… wrong. It will harm you both and the people around you. It already started.”
“It started?” My brain was having a hard time understanding.
He sighed, quickly glancing to the empty bed. “Tamlin is a blood knight.”
“Pure blood, royal blood, and now knight blood?” I was irritated, and it felt good. This anger and frustration were helping me not to be overwhelmed by my sadness.
“Knight bloods have special abilities, some gifts if you will. A bit like humans, some are faster like their Usain Bolt; others are more intelligent like their Albert Einstein. It all depends.”
“Okay…”
“Well, here it’s the same. The blood knights are genetically faster and stronger. They heal faster and have an acute sense of danger. We are not all blood knights of course. For example, I’m not and Yannick is not one either. It’s a lineage thing; a blood knight will most likely have a blood knight son and those usually form the royal guard.”
“Oh… I see now.”
He nodded. “Yes, and you see what happened today shouldn’t have happened. The prince should have been discovered and neutralized by now. Tamlin had the power, maybe not to recognize him as the prince, but he should have sensed something was wrong with him.”
I was about to say, He did! But I knew it wouldn’t help here.
Aidan probably read my face as he nodded as if to answer my silent comment. “Yes, he did feel something was off about him, didn’t he?”
I pursed my lips.
“That’s what I thought.” He shook his head. “And he just pushed it away, thinking it was jealousy because that man was too close to you. That’s one consequence of your feelings for each other.”
And what am I supposed to do? Just stop loving him? I asked silently, and just the thought of it had the effect of a stabbing pain in my chest, adding to my feeling of loss.
“It’s not your fault, Princess.”
I was about to agree with him. It was true, you couldn’t choose who you loved or not, it just happened. Life would be so much easier if you could choose.
“It’s his,” he added, stopping me in my tracks.
“His?”
“You didn’t know any better; you didn’t know it was frowned upon, that it would weaken our already barely standing authority. You didn’t know that.”
“If I had known, it wouldn’t have changed a thing.”
“That you think.”
“No, that I feel,” I replied, bringing my hand to my chest as if to cover my heart.
He snorted but remained silent.
I lay on Kristen's bed, looking at the ceiling, thinking about my parents, and the pain of losing my brother crushed me again, making it too hard to breathe.
I needed to think of something else. I couldn’t let my thoughts go to my brother again. I had to keep my head in the game. “But why do they want to kill me?” I asked, still looking up at the ceiling.
“You know why.”
“No, what I mean is why do I matter? They want to destroy humanity, don’t they? So why don’t they just come into this world and kill everybody?”
“They can’t.”
I waited for him to continue, but he didn’t.
“They can’t?”
He sighed. “This is not really my place to say; ask Tamlin.”
“But you said it yourself; he is not really lucid as far as I’m concerned.”
“We have doors to this world and most of them are not accessible for—” He stopped a second.
I turned my head toward him and I could see from his face that he was collecting his thoughts. “The legend said that when the Gods came down and gave the first man his powers, they also gave him a stone, the limestone.”
“Sure…the limestone, just good enough to complicate the situation a bit more.”
Aidan ignored my comment. “The limestone allows us to access all the doors between this realm and ours. It also makes us a little more powerful than the fae. We don’t know why but when we… separated, the fae wer
e deprived of some of their powers. Not all of them can use doors, only the most powerful can which means the royal family and some of their knight bloods. That’s what keeps this world protected for now. However, if they were to take over then…”
“They’ll get that stone and nothing would stop them from coming here and destroying humanity.”
He nodded in approval.
I looked away, silent again. I knew I had a weight on my shoulders, but I didn’t think it would be such a weight. It was not only the fairies that were counting on me, but humanity too and I was just… well, I was just me.
I sighed, thinking about how my parents were going to hate me. Because of me, they lost one of their children, one of their real children.
Nick, my brother, was no more. The person I knew the best, the person I trusted the most, one of the persons I loved the most was just taken away from me forever. The faes stole him from me… from us, and they were going to pay for it, even if it cost me my life.
I didn’t even notice when I fell asleep, but when I opened my eyes again, Aidan was gone, and Tamlin was sitting on the other bed, looking at me thoughtfully.
“You should have woken me up when you came back.”
He shook his head, smiling sadly. “You needed some sleep. You looked peaceful; it would have been a crime to wake you up.”
“Did you…” I moved to sit on the bed. “Did you—” I just couldn’t finish my sentence.
Tamlin understood what I wanted to say and nodded. “Yes, it’s been taken care of.” He looked at me with sad eyes. “The police will never come here; he is back in Massachusetts.”
“How?” I sighed. “I’m not even sure I want to know.”
Tamlin came to sit beside me and took my hand. “Our doors from one realm to another, the distance is… different.”
“What about my parents?”
“Aidan went to talk to them.”
“They are going to hate me, and I can’t blame them.”
Tamlin pulled me to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around me. “They knew the risk they were taking when they took you in. Don’t blame yourself, Fay; nothing is your fault. I promise. They don’t hate you; I know they don’t.”
“I’m going to miss him so much,” I murmured against his chest.
“I know… I know,” he whispered, gently caressing my hair.
“They will—” I was about to say ‘pay’ but I didn’t want Tamlin to worry more than he already did. In his arms I could feel his pain, his guilt, his love, and his irrepressible need to keep me safe.
I decided not to tell him everything Aidan told me, how it was all wrong for us to be together because I knew that everything he told me wouldn’t change my desire to be with Tamlin.
“I need to phone them. I need to tell them that I’m sorry.”
“You will, but not now.” He let go of his hold on me and rested his hands on my shoulders, looking into my face. “It’s too dangerous; not all of them tracked you down.” He frowned, apparently confused. “It seemed that Gareth didn’t let them know where you were. At least, not all of them know. But Aidan will tell your parents how you feel; they will know.”
I sighed, closing my eyes. “I still can’t believe it happened; I won’t see him again… ever, and—”
Tamlin cupped my face in his large warm hands, resting his forehead against mine. “And?” he asked.
“There is still a little part of me that thinks he will come through this door, telling me that it was all a mistake and that he is safe and sound.”
Tamlin moved a bit to kiss the tip of my nose. “I would give anything for you to have him back. I would bleed if I could spare you any pain.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I know you would.”
He sighed again. “I don’t want to leave you alone but…”
“You need to go, don’t you?”
“Not for long. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I could feel his guilt increase.
“It’s okay, I need to shower and find some food.”
“You order a pizza, and I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
I nodded.
“And whatever you do, don’t antagonize or meet with Gareth, please,” he pleaded, extending his hand toward me.
“Promise.” I slid my hand in his. His hand was so wide and long compared to mine, slightly calloused and covered with tiny scars. It was the hands of a fighter, a knight. Mine were just small and flawless, the hands of the weak.
Tamlin moved his hand to intertwine our fingers and brought it up to kiss the back of mine.
“You are a fighter too, and my hands are here to assist yours.”
I gave him a suspicious glance; I was pretty sure that since I opened the door of my brain to see the images that he could read my mind.
His mouth turned up in a half-smile. “And please, please don’t open the door.”
As soon as Tamlin left, I went to take my shower, as it was pretty busy at this time of the day. I usually didn’t like the shared bathroom when it was crowded, but I thought that, considering the circumstances, my safety depended on the numbers.
I needed to concentrate on my anger, on my desire for revenge to stop myself from grieving, from falling into the pit of despair the loss of my brother caused. Once I had my revenge, I’d let myself cry again.
Chapter 15
When I came back to my room, the light on my phone was beeping. I already had four missed calls and two text messages, all from Gareth.
I sighed, closing my eyes, and it took all my willpower not to send him a text, telling him to shove his coffee where the sun never shone, and that I would spend every minute of the rest of my life to make him pay what he did to my brother.
I phoned the pizza place and decided to study while waiting for delivery in ‘30 minutes or less.’ I was not even sure I would live long enough to take my finals, but right now I would take anything just to try to keep my mind more or less off what had happened.
I sat on my bed, then jumped up, realizing that was where my brother’s lifeless body was resting just a day ago. The crushing pain was back, making it so hard to breathe.
“You can’t break down now, they need you. You have to keep it together just a little while longer… please,” I pleaded with myself in the mirror. “Come on, Fay, you’re stronger than that.”
Gareth was calling me continuously now; it was getting so annoying that I had to turn my phone off. I looked at the clock, the pizza, and Tamlin, should be here in less than fifteen minutes.
I heard a quick knock at my door, and I eyed it warily, barely breathing.
“Pizza.”
I sighed with relief, rolling my eyes at my own silliness. Gareth or one of his guards would not get through my security anyway.
“Coming.” I turned on my phone, ignoring my eighteen voicemails and quickly texted Tamlin to tell him the pizza was here before turning it off again.
When I opened the door, the pizza was there, but the delivery guy was someone else… it was Gareth.
Tamlin had told me that in case I were to see Gareth alone, I had to pretend I didn’t figure it out. I had to play it clueless, but my instinct took over, and I tried to close the door on his face.
Gareth was faster than I imagined anyone could be and a lot stronger too. He was not pretending anymore.
He pushed the door open, got in, and closed it behind him before I even got a chance to blink.
“Closing the door on your friend’s face, little fairy? That’s not proper behavior for a princess,” he chided. “And your security?” He shook his head in fake contrition. “A silly knight student who doesn’t even know what I look like? It’s insulting. It’s as if your people wanted you to socialize with your friend.”
“You’re not my friend!” I spat, turning around. I knew it was silly to turn my back to my archenemy but looking at his face made me sick. The beautiful and perfect face of the man I thought was my friend. “You’re… you’re evil.”
/> He chuckled, but there was no humor in it; it seemed to be full of weariness. “They got your head full of their words before we had a chance to talk, before I could make you see my side of things.”
I could hear from his voice that he was a lot closer now, and it made my skin crawl.
I turned around in a brusque movement and realized he was a lot closer than I thought he would be; he was hovering over me. I was about to tell him to get lost when I heard a loud banging at my door.
“Fay, open the door!” shouted Tamlin.
“Ah, the cavalry is here.” He raised his hand to stop the door from opening but he was still standing in front of me, looking down—a menacing-looking presence.
The banging was getting louder as if Tamlin was trying to break down the door. I was glad he could put people to sleep. I frowned. Tamlin was a big man and the door was pretty thin, it should have been in pieces by now.
Gareth smiled. “He won’t be able to break it, you know. I’m protecting it, and I’m way more powerful than he’ll ever be.”
Cold sweat ran down my spine as I realized Tamlin could be hurt because of me.
“Make him stop; you know I won’t hurt you. We just need to talk. You wouldn’t want me to kill him, right?” He gave me a cold smile. “If only you knew how much I want to. Give me a reason, I dare you.”
I was about to tell him that he already hurt me, but it was pointless, at least now. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew he would not hurt me.
“I’m okay, Tam; just go away… Please,” I pleaded, trying to sound as reassuring as I could.
“Fay?”
“I’m fine, just… just give me a minute.”
Everything went silent behind the door.
Gareth smiled. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes, why didn’t you answer my calls?”
I gave him a ‘are you serious?’ look. “You forgot something.” I pointed to my desk where the cufflink rested.
“Ah… You know things could have been different.” He went to the desk, retrieving the cufflink and playing with it idly. “You might have understood me.”
I quickly glanced toward the door.
Gareth shook his head, still looking down at the cufflink. “I would stop you before you even took a step.”
